Gibson: ‘This is going to take our very best effort’

KEENE VALLEY — Before Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrived, Rep. Chris Gibson linked up with local officials in this Essex County town — heavily damaged in flash flooding caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Irene — to see just how bad things were.

He was fresh off a trip Monday through Greene County, at the southern end of the Kinderhook Republican’s 10-county district, which curves up the Hudson Valley around Albany and Troy, where the flooding Schoharie Creek has left hundreds of people homeless.

“My office is working with the Cuomo administration to ensure we make the strongest case for FEMA assistance and I’m encouraged today to be with the governor and see his priorities, that he’s put on this,” Gibson said in Keene. “This is going to take our very best effort – the federal, state and county level — going forward.”

Gibson then noted that, in the 24-year Army career, he has traveled to his fare share of decimated places — Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Haiti — and this ranks.

“We have areas that have been wreaked with damage from this storm. I’ve been impressed by the response of neighbors helping neighbors and government officials at all levels working together with rescue operations, to ensure accountability and the restore essential services and do the long work for repair.”

He spoke to business owners in Keene Valley, and also walked through Keene proper, several miles to the west. Cuomo said there that federal assistance will be key for New York: “We can do the work, but we need help with the economics.”

“Economically, that’s the only bank for us to go to,” the governor said. “Local governments are stretched, the state is stretched, we just went through a very tough budget process, but the federal help is going to be critical to us.”

But the agency is cash-strapped. And House Republican leaders, loath to spend money on anything, are saying there should be offsets to spending elsewhere in order to pump up disaster aid. I asked Gibson about this.

“We can do offsets,” Gibson said, agreeing with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. “Certainly we can find other places where we can save money, but this is what you need a federal government for — a moment like this — and it has got to be a priority.”